Certainly when the shelf (rabbet) cut is > than the diameter of the bit you're taking too much/pass. These 60° and 90° v-groove router bits are great for making sign lettering, decorative veins or even chamfered edges. The purpose of the bearing is to allow you to easily guide your router bit along a piece of work so that your (normally) shaping or detailing work is kept straight and accurate. Due to this if the profiles are cut the same then essentially a rounded off joint will fit into a cove-cut joint. Cut dozens of classical profiles with our multi-profile router bits. Vary the cutter height, fence position and number of passes to produce an almost unlimited variety of shapes.

The worst base for this sort of work is actually the standard fixed base, which has a very small footprint and only takes Makita's own guide bush (which is 9.5 or 10mm from memory, AFAIK no other sizes available). It isn't difficult to make a larger (more stable) sub base from acrylic plastic (Perspex, Lucite, etc) or polycarbonate (Lexan, etc), in any shape you like, such as an egg shape with an offset handle. A better base for your purposes is the plunge base, which can be set up to allow repeatable depth cuts. It is more stable, too, because it has a bigger footprint than the fixed base, and has the advantage of being able to take Porter-Cable guide bushes when used with a commonly available adaptor. That gives you the ability to do template routing with a selection of guide bushes. The plunge base can also be used with the same micro adjustable side fence that is sold for the Makita RP1110 router (and is compatible with other fences from Bosch and DW) The configurable rabbet bit I bought (changeable bearings - think they're called "step washers"?) only goes to 1/2"... about 13mm. I have been looking for a rabbet router bit that will allow me to get to dead on the 19mm... but it seems to not exist? Glad things are going well with those wabbits. Sounds like the ply is fairly forgiving. If you ever need to rout that 1/2x1/2 in solid wood, you might wanna test again, LOL. In this episode of Getting Started in Woodworking, the forth in our series on building an oak bookcase, we demonstrate how to cut accurate dadoes and rabbets with a router and a simple jig. When it comes to the business end of a router bit, the cutting edges or teeth, most bits these days should be made of at minimum high-speed steel (or HSS for short) but if you can always go with carbide-tipped bits.Become an UNLIMITED member and get it all: searchable online archive of every issue, how-to videos, Complete Illustrated Guide to Woodworking digital series, print magazine, e-newsletter, and more. Give any surface a special touch with a delicate cove or an eye-catching vein with our roundnose router bits. As with all other bits that produce accurate cuts, the rounding bit also includes a bearing guide at the base that is also used to control the depth of cut. Due to this rounding bits also normally include a range of different sized bearings that can be swapped out depending on the depth of cut required. As the bit is also non-guided e.g. it does not feature a bearing it can also be used to great effect for hollowing out objects. The v-groove bit is very similar to the core cutting bit above but rather than leaving a rounded shape, the v-bit cuts a “V” shaped channel that runs down to a point.

Not only is it used for cutting channels it can also be used for creating decorative effects in wooden panels such as doors, table edges and other similar objects. V-bits as with most other decorative cutting bits come in a range of different shapes and angles that can be used to form everything from a deep thin channel to a wide shallow one. These radius grooving router bits are great for custom sign making, veining, lettering and edge work.

There are several different parts that make up a router bit and understanding each of these and what they do is integral to they’re use. The main router bit parts to note are the shank, the body, the cutting edge and if it has one the bearing guide. Which hand planes should a power-tool woodworker buy first? If you had to recommend three, which hand planes should I start with? As the name implies, V-groove bits groove out a V-shaped profile in a piece of material, often to produce a decorative effect. V-groove bits can engrave designs in flat surfaces like signs or cabinet faces, create shallow grooves that run the length of a column (a style coined ‘fluting’), or even make ridges in panels to produce a beadboard effect. These bits come in a variety of diameters and V-groove angles that determine the width and depth of the groove. Some bits also have flat bottoms instead of sharp tips that limit the depth of the cut. I built a router table and put a router in it. Have used it only a little, but I need to make some 1/2″ x 1/2″ rabbets in some plywood. I have both straight cut bits (1/2 inch cutter diameter) as well as a rabbet bit with various bearings. Actually with a side fence and, say, a 20mm 2-flute straight cutter you could do straight rebate - the thing is you'd need to do it in incremental depth passes of 1 to 3mm (assuming in MDF or ply). This is at best tedious, but depending on the base you have in the router it may prove very difficult to get two cuts of the same depth.

A lot of timber we buy over here is 19mm, isn't it? How best do we cut a rabbet that's 19mm wide by some depth? I'd have thought a router bit was the way to go.

These compression (upcut and downcut) spiral router bits cut both top and bottom edges of a board cleanly. Straight router bits with a plunge point so you can make smooth flat-bottomed plunge entry cuts in the middle of your workpiece. Two-flute mortice and tenon router bits that deliver clean edges, flat bottoms and perfect shoulders on tenons.